OMAHA, Neb. -
After the loss on Tuesday, we knew that Thursday was do or die. We started the day like every other day with breakfast. Then we had some time to kill, which I spent by taking a nap. It was great! After I woke up, we had our team lunch and then we got ready for our big game. When we got to the field, there was nobody there, at least compared to the previous days with no early game. Thanks to the open time, we were able to take BP on the field, which is always cool. There were a lot of people in the stands behind me in left field who kept asking for balls, but I wasn't able to give any out. I was getting yelled at by kids who were calling me a meanie and saying they were going to cheer for UNC now. I thought it was pretty funny. After BP, we had some time to rest in the locker room. Everyone was drenched from the heat and humidity, so being able to cool off was big time. During in and out, I hit my usual unbelievably great fly balls to the outfielders. Once the game got underway we came out and tried to get some runs across for Spence, who threw another outstanding ballgame, but were unable to early on. When Kole came up with the bases loaded, I felt good about his chance to get a hit, but I wasn't expecting him to get a grand slam. He was clutch all day. We battled hard and came out on top. We still have a lot of work left to reach our goal. Take it one game at a time. Game against Texas on ESPN2 at 6:00 CT. Go Devils!